Fiscal Transparency Commitments -Open Government Partnership- #FiscalTransparency Cape Town, South Africa May 4, 2016.

GIFT Work on Public Participation GIFT Analysis Data from the first 51 Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Reports. A GIFT background paper for FOWG (M.Petrie, GIFT’s Lead Technical Advisor), analysing implementation of all the commitments in the 51 Action Plans by country and region, and implementation of just the FT commitments in those Plans, based on data extracted by GIFT from the 51 IRM Executive Summaries. A paper by the IRM on the implementation of all the commitments in the 43 Action Plans. 2

GIFT Work on Public Participation Identifying Commitments Commitments were coded as FT commitments where they: Relate to any aspect of taxation, borrowing, spending, investment and management of public resources, including delivery of public services. Cover policy design, implementation, review. Include: any public participation in the above. Exclude general references to public participation, access to information or open data that do not specifically refer to FT 3

GIFT Work on Public Participation IRM Analysis Analysis of all 948 commitments in the first 41 IRM Reports concludes: 41% of commitments were new rather than pre-existing. 24% were of potentially transformative impact. Some NAPs contain high levels of ‘filler’ – commitments not clearly relevant to OGP, or assessed as having little or no impact. Problem worse in cohort 2 compared to cohort 1. Cohort 1 countries had much stronger rates of implementation of commitments than cohort 2 countries. Cohort 1 countries also had much lower count of commitments of unclear relevance to OGP (1% v 22%). 4

GIFT Work on Public Participation A total of 378 FT commitments identified, in 48 out of these 51 Action Plans. This is 33% of the total commitments in these Plans. The definition of a commitment varies widely within and across Action Plans, reducing the comparability of data on commitments. There is a very wide range in the proportion of fiscal transparency commitments to total commitments in Action Plans, from 0% (Chile, Panama, Romania) to 100% (Guatemala). 5 FTA Commitments

GIFT Work on Public Participation Did Commitments Get Implemented? 6

GIFT Work on Public Participation Doers Of those countries with more than 5 FT commitments, notable progress in implementation of FT commitments was made by: Brazil – 10 out of 10 Indonesia – 10 out of 11 Moldova – 8 out of 14 Philippines – 8 out of 16 Croatia – 12 out of 16 completed or substantially completed Mexico – 12 out of 17 7

GIFT Work on Public Participation STAR Commitments A star commitment is defined by the OGP as a commitment that combines three elements 1. Clear relevance to OGP goals assessed as likely to be transformative impact 2. Has been substantially completed or completed. 3. Introduced after the IRM reports for cohort 1 countries had been completed. There are 74 star commitments relating to FT. Star commitments make up 20% of all FT commitments. 8

GIFT Work on Public Participation FT Star Commitments 9 Country Croatia11 Honduras6 Moldova6 Colombia Dominican Republic 5555 Ghana (sub-commitments) Jordan 4444 Bulgaria3 Italy 3 Tanzania3 Denmark2 Latvia2 Uruguay2 Liberia Others* 2 16

GIFT Work on Public Participation Some Notable Commitments EITI: commitments in around a dozen countries to join, implement, strengthen participation, publicise reports. Guatemala: join the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST). Finland: promote participatory budgeting. Ghana: consult on, pass, and raise public awareness of a Fiscal Responsibility Act; prepare guidelines for deepening CSO participation in planning and budgetary processes. Draft new or stronger PFM Laws in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan Commitments to strengthen procurement in many countries e.g. Indonesia, the Philippines. GFMIS reforms in the Philippines, Honduras, and Dominican Rep. (the latter also introduced a Treasury Single Account). Indonesia: publish local level health and education budgets. 10

GIFT Work on Public Participation Some Notable Commitments Armenia: introduce internal audit across government; and program budgeting. Israel: publish executive’s budget proposal. Tanzania: publish grants to local governments. Greece: publish taxpayers in arrears. Indonesia: Publish tax and customs administration performance information and Annual Report. Honduras: update and disseminate the PEFA assessment. IATI initiatives in a number of donor countries. 11

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Disclosure First, OGP member governments should publish documents already produced within government: 4 countries produce a Pre-Budget Statement but do not publish it 4 others publish it too late 2 countries publish a Citizen’s Budget but too late 4 countries produce but do not publish a Mid-Year Review 1 country produces but does not publish a year-end report and another does not publish the audit report 2 countries publish these documents too late 12

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Disclosure Other reports not currently produced, but which would take relatively effort, are a Citizens’ Budget (not published in 12 OGP members), and a mid-year report (not produced in 21 OGP members). OGP members that have gone backwards on fiscal transparency in recent years should give priority to decisively reversing this trend. The 4 countries that do not meet minimum fiscal transparency standards for OGP should do so by publishing the Audit Report. 13

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Public Participation Governments, legislatures and Supreme Audit Institutions should increase opportunities for public engagement in fiscal policy throughout the budget cycle and across all stages of fiscal policy design and implementation: The annual budget cycle. Fiscal policy reviews and new policy initiatives outside the annual budget cycle (revenues, expenditures, financing, asset, liability management). The design and delivery of public services. The planning, appraisal and implementation. of public investment projects. 14

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Oversight Strengthening legislative oversight. Opening up legislative committee budget hearings to the public. Strengthening Supreme Audit Institutions independence and resourcing. Introducing social auditing. 15

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Specific Commitments Countries should pay much more attention to the specification of commitments in their Action Plans, using SMART criteria: specific, measureable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. The Philippines first Action Plan and the second UK Plan provide some good examples. Each commitment should demonstrate specifically how it advances open government. Group similar activities together in logically sequenced steps with timelines. 16

GIFT Work on Public Participation A Poorly Specified Commitment “…plans to launch a web site where citizens can find information on the national budget and report information they may have on the actual expenditure of government funds.” Commitment is not specific on the types of budget information, nor the types of information that citizens might report. Not possible to see how commitment builds on current information availability, nor how success will be measured. No reference to a time frame. 17

GIFT Work on Public Participation A Well Specified Commitment “… commits to publish data on government subsidies to elementary and junior high schools and to publish health expenditures and budgets at every community hospital in 497 regions on the national budget, and report information they may have on the actual expenditure of government funds within a year.” Commitment is specific and measureable. 18

GIFT Work on Public Participation A Results-Focused Commitment “Improve the management of public resources by increasing the country’s ranking in the Open Budget Index from providing ‘limited information’ to providing ‘significant information.” Very specific and measureable: the expressions “limited information” and “significant information” correspond to bands on the Open Budget Index (scores of and respectively) - although it lacks a time dimension. Commitment is specific and measureable. 19

GIFT Work on Public Participation Ideas for Next Action Plans: Consultation Practices Designation of a lead agency responsible for each commitment. Publication of the names of specific CSOs who are working with government on each commitment. Countries need to follow much more closely the OGP process requirements for public consultation in the design and implementation of their Action Plans. Go beyond traditional civil society consultation models towards institutionalising systematic, on-going and meaningful dialogue with non-government actors and the public. 20

GIFT Work on Public Participation GIFT GIFT stands ready to assist countries with the design and implementation of fiscal transparency initiatives, whether they are current members of OGP or are non-members, by: Providing a platform for peer to peer sharing and learning e.g. on fiscal transparency portals, and on publishing in open data formats. Offering access to good practices, tools, technical expertise. Supporting OGP members to develop more ambitious commitments. Motivating additional governments to join OGP. Developing new norms and sources of guidance e.g. on how governments, legislatures and SAIs should encourage and facilitate public participation in fiscal policy. 21